Now I See–Meditation on Time

“Now I see” means that until now, I did not see. Why not? I may have been looking for a very long time, but still I did not see. Perhaps because now I am not looking anymore, I begin to see. What is it that I see? What is it that I have been looking for?

Maybe you were looking for yourself–to find out who you really are. Who is the person reciting the Buddha’s name? Who is it that is practicing meditation? Who is the one trying to look deeply?

…..

The now is the only moment when and where you can find what you have been looking for. You have been looking for Nirvana. You have been looking for God. You have been looking for enlightenment, for awakening. You have been looking for Pure Land, and for your true nature of no birth and no death. It turns out that everything that you have been looking for is already there in the present moment, and the secret of the finding is to go back to the now.

Excerpt translation from “Now I See” (bây giờ mới thấy)* a new book in Vietnamese about poem by Thich Nhat Hanh.